Bush for 25 years — I have worked
with him. I have worked with every
president?'
That work, and fund-raising over
the decades, has given Fisher "a rela-
tionship . . . But I never talked to
anyone for my own personal gain?'
In an interview in his office in the
Fisher Building (named after an
unrelated banking family), Fisher
recently spoke of his role as a major
player in American-Israel relations,
and why he felt the Republican Par-
ty was meeting the needs of American
Jews and the State of Israel.
He credited George Bush with
helping 1,000 Ethiopian Jews reach
Israel three years ago through a U.S.
airlift, and asserted that "Ronald
Reagan is the best friend Israel ever
had" in the White House. "I know
these things," he says as he leans back
in his chair. "I saw them."
What Fisher has seen is a kind of
Jewish renaissance within the
"The way Max influences others is
Republican Party, where Jews were
by influencing himself. He leads by
once a rarity.
example."
Gordon Zacks of Columbus, Ohio
—Gordon Zacks
is a Fisher success story. The two met
in the late 1960s when Fisher head-
ed the United Jewish Appeal and
Zacks chaired its Young Leadership
Cabinet. In 1974, Fisher recruited
Zacks for the Republican Party.
"If you go back 40 years when
Max Fisher first got involved in
Republican politics:" says Zacks,
"there may have been a half-dozen
Jews involved nationally," including
Fisher and Max Rabb of New York.
"In 40 years of effort, Max Fisher is
primarily rf_•sponsible for broadening
the base of Republican support in the
Jewish community and sensitizing at the Republican National Conven-
the Republican Party to Jewish con- tion. "There were Jewish breakfast
cerns."
meetings every morning;' says Zacks,
That support and sensitivity were "and luncheons every day sponsored
evident in New Orleans this summer by the National Jewish Coalition" —
Charge . . . And Countercharge
ELIZABETH KAPLAN
Staff Writer
upporters of presidential
hopeful Michael Dukakis
and leading Democrats
denounced claims by in-
dustrialist Max Fisher this week
that the Democractic candidate's
campaign is marred by "the
poison of anti-Semitism?'
Mark Fox, deputy state direc-
tor for the Dukakis-Bentsen cam-
paign, said he was disappointed
that "a man like Max Fisher, who
is so respected in this communi-
ty, would make this kind of at-
tack?'
Added Sen. Carl Levin, "Max
Fisher let his Republican par-
tisanship color his judgment. The
campaign is too negative already.
His comments don't raise the
level any."
Fisher, a supporter of Vice
President George Bush, charged
in a statement Monday that three
members of the Democratic Na-
tional Committee — Willie Bar-
row, Robert Farrell and Ruth Aim
Skaff — are "involved in various
kinds of anti-Semitic ugliness?'
S
The three were members of
the presidential campaign of the
Rev. Jesse Jackson. Fisher alleg-
ed that Barrow and Farrell are
Nation of Islam sympathizers and
that Skaff supports the Palestine
Liberation Organization.
A national Democratic
spokesman confirmed that the
three are part of the Democratic
National Committee (DNC), not
the Dukakis campaign. DNC
members are elected and do not
have a voice in determining
foreign or domestic policy.
The official, who asked to re-
main anonymous, said the
Democratic leadership would not
respond to the charges that the
DNC members support the Na-
tion of Islam and the PLO
because "to do so would give them
credence?'
Rep. Sander Levin, D-
Southfield, said, "I know Dukakis
personally and I know that he
despises anti-Semitism?'
He said that Dukakis'
"deep feelings about the persecu-
tion of the Jewish people" are one
of the reasons the Democractic
hopeful is a strong supporter of
Israel.
According to Fox, the Bush
campaign has been "looking
furiously" for someone to lodge
charges that the Dukakis cam-
paign is anti-Semitic.
Bush supporters first ap-
proached Minnesota Sen. Rudy
Boschwitz, chairman of the
Republican Senatorial Campaign
Committee, to denounce Barrow,
Farrell and Skaff, Fox said.
Boschwitz said that he was
not interested and that the move
would likely have more negative
results than positive.
Fox said the Bush move was
prompted by revelations that
members of his own campaign
were anti-Semitic.
Last month, Bush fired top
leaders in his campaign including
Frederic Malek, who reportedly
compiled a list of the Jews in the
Bureau of Labor Statistics for
Richard Nixon; Jerome Brentar,
who was active in the case of
former Nazi John Demjanjuk;
and Florian Galdau, a member in
1941 of the Romanian Iron
Guard.
James Zogby, director of the
Arab American Institute, concurs
with Fox.
"This is an effort from the
Bush campaign to shift the
burden of anti-Semitism to
Dukakis," he said.
Zogby has called on the
Republican National Committee
to repudiate Fisher's statement,
which he called "unwarranted,
dangerous and desperate!'
Zogby is particularly offended
by Fisher's comments about Ruth
Ann Skaff whose only crime, he
said, is that she is Lebanese.
Skaff supports the PLO but also
believes in security for Israel,
Zogby said. "And there is no anti-
Semitism in her background?'
A report this week by the
Political Research Associates, a
non-profit institute in Cambridge,
Mass., also alleges that a
Republican National Committee
ethnic unit is filled with Nazi
sympathizers.
A spokesman for the Bush
campaign said the report is "ob-
viously nonsense. To suggest that
George Bush is knowingly
associating himself with anti-
Semites is ridiculous."
❑
a Republican organization that boasts
Fisher as its honorary chairman,
Zacks as a co-chairman and Detroiter
Paul Borman on its executive
committee.
"There has been an opening up of
the Republican Party," says Zacks,
"and a willingness to listen to Jews.
The person most responsible for that
is Max Fisher, and the person most
responsible for bringing Jewish
leadership into the party is Max
Fisher. He's our mentor and teacher."
Zacks says it was a fitting tribute
that Fisher was asked to address the
New Orleans convention as a Jewish
community leader. "He helped to
raise the major Jewish issues that
have been embraced by the
Republican Party?'
M
ax Fisher recently as-
sessed Republican ac-
complishments on is-
sues of interest to
American Jews and
Israel.
) "Until (Richard) Nixon, Israel got
very little money from the American
government. And there were no arms
sales;' says Fisher. "But after the '73
airlift, things changed!'
Fisher often is credited with in-
itiating that change and the emergen-
cy airlift of American supplies during
the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Using his
connections in the Nixon Administra-
tion, he reportedly made the rounds
of Washington for a solid week until
the airlift was established.
Pointing to the 1988 Republican
platform, Fisher lists the accom-
plishments of Republican admini-
strations: a strong record in support
of Soviet Jewry, strong support for
Israel and the Middle East peace pro-
cess, no support for quota systems
and a continuing plank protesting
anti-Semitism.
In his characteristically soft voice,
Fisher discusses "the emergence" of
the Jewish voter in the United States.
In 1960, 80 percent of the Jewish vote
T_LI_C rICTD(IIT
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